Mukurtu Hubs and Spokes

The California Native Hub, a regional Mukurtu Hub based at the American Indian Studies Center (AISC) at UCLA, supports the development of the Mukurtu in tribal communities and organizations across the California region. We are not restricted to state borders, however, and have an understanding that First Peoples’ geographies precede these state and national borders. We honor geographic relationships to each other and the land.

The California Native Hub provides: 

• Localized training/workshops for developing and maintaining Mukurtu sites.
• Mukurtu testing on our “sandbox” or demo site.
• Documentation of “user stories” based on the needs of their community users (Spokes), ensuring that future development within Mukurtu is driven directly by community needs as they define and document them. 
• A place for communities to meet at times on UCLA campus. 

For more information, visit https://canativehub.ucla.edu

Contact:

• CANativeHub@aisc.ucla.edu 
• Mishuana Goeman (co-director): goeman@gender.ucla.edu  
• Erin Debenport (co-director): erindebenport@ucla.edu  
• María Montenegro (co-director, project manager): melviramontenegro@gmail.com  
• Celestina Castillo (digital trainer): castillomontana@g.ucla.edu 

The Mukurtu East Hub is not institutionally affilaited. We rely on federal, state, and independent grants to do our work. 

In addition to supporting communities with their independent Mukurtu work, the Native Northeast Research Collaborative represents tribal communities in greater Southern New England Indian Country — Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, and the historical communities that migrated west to Wisconsin. We offer access to the tribes’ long historical record by providing collaborative access to images, transcriptions with annotations and interactive biographies of primary source documents written by, for, and about the Indigenous peoples within our region. Our Mukurtu platform serves as a method of digital repatriation, of adding a Native voice to the archival records and sharing community stories.

For more information, visit https://www.nativenortheastportal.com and https://www.thenativenortheast.org 

Contact:

• Paul Grant-Costa pgrant-costa@aya.yale.edu

Kaipumakani is the Hawaii and Pacific Mukurtu Hub. Hosted by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Department of Linguistics.

Kaipumakani is building a community of organizations and individuals dedicated to the preservation of digital cultural heritage in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. We are committed to maintaining an open, community-driven approach. If you or your organization is engaged in digital cultural heritage preservation activities, or if you are considering starting a project, please join us as a partner!

The Kaipumakani project promotes sharing of digital heritage through the following services for Hawaii and Pacific Communities: 

• Training in the use of Mukurtu CMS 
• Assistance with deploying Mukurtu CMS 
• Assistance with digital heritage collection management 
• Assistance with digitization projects

For more information, visit https://kaipumakani.org

Contact:

• Contact: Gary Holton holton@hawaii.edu 
• Alana Kanahele, apollack@hawaii.edu 

The Mukurtu Midwest Hub is a regional hub supported by the WiLS Digital Projects staff. They provide training in Mukurtu CMS to tribal and non-tribal cultural heritage institutions in Wisconsin and the western Great Lakes states. Staff also supports a Wisconsin Native Nations Digital Records Collective that sustains and builds on established community networks and trusted relationships with Wisconsin Native Nations. The collaborative works with tribal cultural workers to share information and resources that advance their communities’ digital stewardship work. 

For more information, visit https://mukurtu-midwest.libraries.wsu.edu and https://www.wils.org/mukurtu-midwest

Contact:

• Erin F.H. Hughes – Digital and Community Outreach Archivist ehughes@wils.org  
• Kristen Whitson – Digital Specialist and Consortia Manager kristen@wils.org

Mukurtu West is a regional hub site supporting the development of the Mukurtu Content Management System (CMS) across communities in Oregon. Based at the University of Oregon, we specifically serve Oregon’s tribal nations, as well as institutions and programs that host their content and collections to ensure the ethical hosting and dissemination of materials according to Indigenous protocols. Based on the needs of tribal communities, we can provide services, training and assistance for hosting digital cultural heritage, including photographs, recordings, language materials, and educational curriculum. Due to very limited staffing, our capacity for projects is determined on a case-by-case basis and continued grant funding. After ongoing consultation visits, our priorities are based on the specific needs of tribal communities and informed by current research and grant projects within and with Native nations. 

For more information, visit https://mukurtu-west.libraries.wsu.edu/

Contact:

• Jennifer O’Neal, joneal@uoregon.edu
• Nathan Georgitis, nathang@uoregon.edu 

The NSW Australian Mukurtu Hub mission is to support skill developments of Indigenous data stewardship in line with Indigenous data sovereignty principles. It develops tools and advice, through research partnerships with Aboriginal organisations and communities. It does this by working to support local community agendas and research needs in unceded Australia. 

For more information, contact https://mukurtu-australia-nsw.libraries.wsu.edu/

Contact:

• monica.galassi@uts.edu.au